177. FRIDA KAHLO: Strange like me

UPDATE (MARCH 2016): After months of research and deliberation with the Frida Kahlo estate, I have found that this quote has been misattributed to Frida Kahlo. Soon after posting the original comic, I was contacted by Rebecca Martin, who claimed that she was the author of the quote and that it had been mistakingly attributed to Kahlo. After doing my own research and reading the English translation of Kahlo’s diary (where this quote is supposedly from) I sided with Rebecca, but I wanted to be sure before I made any changes to the comic. So I enlisted the help of the Internet’s most-respected quote finder: the Quote Investigator. His website is dedicated to tracking down the origins of misattributed quotes. He generously agreed to conduct his own research and came to the same conclusion, that this quote has been misattributed to Kahlo. In short, Rebecca is a huge fan of Frida Kahlo and was inspired by her to write this quote and pasted it on a picture of Kahlo (which is where the confusion began) and submitted it to the popular blog PostSecret. You can read the Quote Investigator’s full report here. I know this news might be disappointing to some of you who have always believed that it came from Kahlo, but I think it reinforces the message of the comic: that Kahlo continues to inspire new generations of young women, including Rebecca Martin.

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter. Unlike the figure from my previous comic, the stoic Marcus Aurelius, Frida was the exact opposite. Her life was ruled by emotion, passion, love and suffering. She was a remarkable woman, whom I was completely ignorant about until a friend of mine suggested I adapt one of her quotes (shout out to Morganna).

Frida painted mostly self-portraits. As she said “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.” Her portraits were deeply personal and haunting. Although her style is described as surrealist, Frida stated “They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” Her portraits were raw emotion on canvas, depicting the unfiltered thoughts and feelings of its creator which were more often than not, pain and anguish.

Frida’s life was filled with physical suffering. She contracted polio at a young age, which caused her right leg to be much skinnier than her left, and led to severe spinal problems. Frida suffered “two grave accidents” in her life. The first as an 18-year-old, when the bus she was riding in with her boyfriend was struck by a trolley car. Frida was impaled by a handrail, the pole entering her left torso and exiting her vagina. Her spinal column, pelvis, collarbone and ribs were broken, her right leg was shattered and foot crushed. It was only during her recovery, while bedridden, did she start painting.

Frida’s second “grave accident” was meeting her husband Diego Rivera, who was a famous painter and nicknamed the ‘Michaelango of Mexico’. Frida first saw him when she was 15 and he was 36. Rivera was hired by Frida’s school to paint a mural. Frida proclaimed her love for him to a friend then and there. Their marriage was intense and tumultuous. Both had numerous affairs, Frida with both men and women (including one with communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky). Frida was obsessed with Diego, and the state of their relationship influenced many of her paintings, for instance in her piece Diego And I.

Frida’s later years were hindered by more physical problems. She had numerous surgeries to repair her damaged spine and went on to have two spinal fusions (her painting The Broken Column from this time). Complications from the surgery left her right leg gangrene, which had to be amputated in 1953.

Despite a lifetime of pain and turmoil, Frida still led an exciting life, mingling with famous revolutionaries and artists. And she had a force of personality and soaring spirit that seemed to make her irresistible to nearly everyone she met. Frida famously wrote in her diary after finding out that her leg had to be amputated: “Feet, what do I need them for? If I have wings to fly.”

– Most of the info in this post was sourced from this Vanity Fair article, worth reading if you want to learn more about Frida.
– I haven’t seen the movie Frida, starring Salma Hayek. Is it worth watching?

Hi Gav, yeah go ahead watch the Movie, is really good, and if for some reason you ever want to come to Mexico city, I’ll give you the tour to “Casa Azul” (The Blue House) Diego and Frida’s home now turn to a Museum. Keep the good art Gav, and please make some more of Alan Watts or Jim Carrey.

I just want to point ot that many people in Mexico felt aggravated by the movie, supposedly beacuse of it focusing mostly on the sex… I don’t know why! Influenced by hearsay, I watched it reluctantly, and found it to be REALLY GOOD. Keep up the good work Gav!

Wow, that was good. I could relate very much to it (laser clinic *ahem*) and was very moved. I always check this website for new work, and it always seems to show me the words I need at that moment. A Zen Pencils update always make my day. Keep up the good work!

Thank you Gav. I have followed your work and your site from the very beginning, and some posts have spoken to me more than others. But this .. this is is one that I have the strongest connection with.. for this point in my life – in particular the theme of belief in one’s own unique strange self. I look forward to the poster version.

I think the internet has helped a lot of people realize that everyone else you is just as weird/strange in someway! Friday’s art is about owning who you are and I’m grateful that people like you are willing to do it too!

What a wonderful and inspiring comic. Let me just say again how wonderful I find it that your characters come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

This comic really challenged me because I normally don’t associate unibrows with ideals of beauty, and it seems that the majority of society holds those views as well. Thank you for challenging me and reminding me to see the person beyond the physical appearance.

For those in the Great Lakes region, the Detroit Institute of Art is currently hosting a special exhibit, honoring Frida and Diego. It runs until July 12th. I had the pleasure of attending it myself recently, and really enjoyed it.

Great comic and nice way to communicate reality of famous aritsts like Frida.

I’m a young 20-something male with a bushy uni-brow, plenty of hair on my face and everywhere else! When I was younger I developed a talent for wiggling my uni-brow like an inch-worm or a Caterpillar doing the wave! Was quite amusing to my classmates, not as amazing as the double-jointed fellow, but quite impressive none-the-less.

By drawing her as cookie-cutter-cutie with a timid expression you betrayed her vision.
She wished to be represented that way. She was proud of her mustach and combed it. And you are erasing it, in a comic pretending to denounce the toxicity of beauty standarts, because you suscribe to the very same norms you pretend to critic and surpass. You are one of the mean girls in your comic, Gavin.

I happened to go to a Kahlo exhibit at MOMA in SF several years back, and (despite never seeing her work before) I was struck by how big “The Two Fridas” was. It practically covered the wall! It’s also my current favorite piece of hers.

Great comic Gav, thank you!
And if you ever come to Mexico City (I hope one day you do so), let us know in advance, I bet there will be more than a few, myself included, that would be happy to show you around.
🙂

Another comic I’m going to use in class with my teen students here in France. They need to feel more self-assured and more tolerant. Thanks Gav. Your work is inspiring and open-minding. Please keep on!

Love this! Wish you had done this six years ago when my daughter was in Middle school and the girls made fun of her eye brow shape. She now believes she has to wax them on a regular basis. Sending this along to her anyway. Thanks Gav!

But lets consider that in reality she was a horrible person, she did have accidents but most of the operations she had were simply because she was bored, not to mention that many children were slaughtered in her garden and nobody did nothing to avoid it or maybe they didnt want to because they were afraid of her and all her satanist friends! Considering that Mexico has always been a catholic country.

She was a murderer, and no murderer should be taken as and icon, but that class of history is not available for everyone, they want us to think of her as a revolutionary woman when in reality she was a demon.
Maybe you have to become one to be seen like a hero, I dont know anymore.

I think in the course of lifetime, we are all bound to meet atleast a few like us though it is definitely hard. I once did a report about Frieda Kahlo long time back, this refreshed my memory about her. An incredible woman who overcame so much suffering.

I AM MOVED TO TEARS . I KNOW YOU MAY OR MAY NOT READ THIS BUT THANK YOU GAV AND ZENPENCILS.COM FOR PUTTING THIS UP AND INSPIRING US . I WOULD HAVE NEVER KNOWN ABOUT FRIDA IF IT WAS’NT FOR YOU PEOPLE . LOTS OF BLESSINGS TO YOU PEOPLE 🙂 .

I love this, and will share it with my kid, who has a unibrow, and a mustache, just like Frida. She will most certainly ask why, in your illustrations, the little girl has no mustache. I have the same question…

My first time working as a teacher’s assistant my favorite student was this beautiful smart young girl who had a unibrow. She was really insecure about it, being 9 and all. And this comic touched me so much, because literally this girl had the experience in class one day when we came across Fridah’s picture in our books and a little boy at our table said “Hey this girl in the book has eyebrows like you. That’s cool!” and to see her face light up was just awesome, just like Frida Kahlo is awesome. And your whole website is awesome. I just had to comment on this one. Great great job! <3

Muhammad Ali lived a life that was bigger, in every way, than any athlete of his era. These are the memories of four people who knew him—author Thomas Hauser, When We Were Kingsfilmmaker Leon Gast, HBO’s Jim Lampley, and trainer Freddie Roach—of meeting him at various points along that journey.

We live in an age when no children will ever again enter a museum and ever look upon a masterpiece without first asking how much it cost. Muhammad Ali was never something so trivial as a brand; he was a great spirit. We remember great spirits on the basis of what they’re worth according to a different,

This touched me so much.
When I was in elementary I had a unibrow, and I did not care what people thought; though sometimes the comments people at school made hurt, but I tried to not put too much attention to it.
I wish the world wasn’t so judgmental, we should always love ourselves no matter what people think. 🙂

Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.
BERTRAND RUSSELL, Sceptical Essays